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Published: December 4th 2006
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When Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII tried to pacify the anger of the clergy in Constantinople after he unilaterally reunited the Orthodox church with Rome, he told them there was no real concern, as it takes three months at best to make the trip from Rome, so there will never be any real oversight. Well, while we’re not quite to Istanbul (Constantinople) yet, we made it to Athens in right about 24 hours. Not bad for using four modes of transportation to do it.
The train to Bari was mostly uneventful. It was about five hours long through the Italian countryside, which I guess was charming. All of a sudden, at the end of the ride, this old man sitting across the aisle from us decides to speak. He was probably pushing eighty and it sounded like he smoked for a good seventy, so I had a heck of a time understanding him. He asks where we’re from and all that, but then he asks whether I am a Republican or Democrat. The two ladies who sat across from us were laughing about as hard as I was, as I really didn’t know what to say. It’s not that I’m opposed
to a political discussion, it just seemed really out of place to have it there and then. Anyway, I told him and he asked me why. I tried to offer the best explanation without going into specific policy, but I’m not sure he got the gist of it.
Fortunately, they had quite a few taxis at the station in Bari. Unfortunately, the driver was literally horrendous. Traffic in Bari seemed worse than in Rome, and I’m inclined to think that all Europeans drive this way. Anyway, we got to the ferry, and it was actually really nice. We went the cheap route and got reclining seats for the trip instead of an individual cabin. It worked out though as there were only 8 or so people that I counted in the entire reclining seat area, and we all had our own rows to ourselves to lay down in if we chose. At first I was a little paranoid about leaving our luggage while we ate, but people just minded their own business and I felt much more comfortable than I imagined I would. I ended up getting quite a bit of rest because of it, as I tend not
to sleep well around strangers.
The ferry had quite a few nice amenities to keep people occupied. There were several restaurants, a play area for kids, a bar, and even a casino room with slot machines. The dinner and breakfast (it was an overnight trip ) we had were very delicious Greek meals. The prices weren’t too bad either, making me very thankful. It’s funny, because I’m not cheap. I tend to spend too much actually, but Rome disciplined me just a bit.
The company running the ferry had buses running to Athens from Patras, the city we arrived in. It was a nice ride. The countryside was very beautiful. The bus only had maybe 10 people on it, so it was a relaxing environment. The driver didn’t speak or understand any English though, so we had to rely on another guy to explain whatever he said. That’s been a rare situation though, as a majority of the greeks we’ve dealt with speak at least some English.
As for Athens, we ended up arriving yesterday afternoon. It looked very poor as we rode through Piraeus, the main port for Athens. As we got close to the town
center however, it looked much nicer. The graffiti seems to be everywhere though. We’re staying in the Monastiraki area, near Plaka. It’s very nice in this area, especially with all the pedestrian areas. It’s neat how quickly all the street vendors just seem to come out of nowhere in the mornings to make it a lively little area.
We went to the Acropolis this morning, which was great. The view of the city was amazing, minus the haze. I’m thinking all these monuments and ruins are starting to blend in for Julie, but she’s being the dutiful wife, which I’m glad for. You could see the Agora, Athens’ ancient marketplace, from up top, along with an array of other ruins surrounding the hill. We didn’t actually go to anything else there, as I really wanted to use this day to get us caught up on laundry, our itinerary, and just to relax some. We did a little bit of shopping , as things are somewhat cheaper than in Italy, but we’ll probably still do a bulk of our shopping in Turkey.
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